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Neurorehabilitation using Brain-Computer Interface (RehaBCI)
Start date: Mar 1, 2008, End date: Feb 28, 2011 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Cerebrovascular accident (stroke) is one of the most common causes of movement disability, and is likely to become an even greater problem as EU citizens become elderly. Most patients never regain effective control of upper limbs damaged by stroke. Brain computer interface (BCI) systems allow severely disabled users to convey information via brain activity alone. Despite major developments in BCI work, little attention has been paid to movement rehabilitation since BCI research focuses almost exclusively on restoring communication. Recent work has shown that some BCI approaches may produce significant and otherwise impossible reorganisation of cortical movement areas. Training with BCI methodologies that have been shown to affect motor areas, combined with emerging tools for rehabilitation such as functional electrical stimulation, rehabilitation robots, and movement therapy, may provide a new opportunity for retraining stroke victims to regain some control over damaged limbs. This proposal aims to analyse the possibilities of using different non-invasive BCI approaches that have been extensively validated for movement rehabilitation at patients with severe motor disabilities. This will be done through existing collaborations of Institute of Automation (IAT) with academic and industry partners across several disciplines which allow a supra-disciplinary research. These efforts may also foster progress in related disciplines, including neurophysiology, BCIs for communication, robotics, and recovery from other disorders such as aphasia or motor disability produced by injury or disease.
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